Koya's new City branch at the Bloomberg Arcade will serve their breakfast and new dishes

Summing it all up: Koya is legendary for its affordable, authentic approach to Japanese udon noodles. Now, they're heading to the City, with new dishes, breakfast, and a bar filled with sake…

The low-down

It was a sad day when Koya closed its Soho restaurant, leaving only the Koya Bar to bring us our fix of glutinous, ropey udon noodles. But now, Koya is opening a new base in the City, and there'll be new dishes to try and a breakfast menu.

Koya in the City will live in the area’s flash new Bloomberg Arcade, alongside Bleeker Burger, Caravan and the new Vinoteca City.

The menu will be seasonal, and they’ll also be doing several amazing-sounding Japanese-style breakfasts which sound well worth getting out of bed for on a drizzly morning. Those includes an English Breakfast Udon with egg, bacon and shitake, kippers with a poached egg and miso soup, and a simple, savoury neko-manma with egg and fishy bonito rice. For when you need a serious morning stomach liner, you could also go for the kama tama hot udon with egg yolk and bacon. Breakfast will be on offer from 7am on weekdays, and slightly later on weekends.

For the mains, there’ll be rotating specials, including sardine tempura, or clams and broad beans steamed in dashi butter (both of which sound like a must-try), plus new dishes like:

Tonkatsu – breaded aged pork loin with cabbage and fruit miso sauce

Yasai Kakiage Ten – vegetable kakiage tempura udon noodle

Ohitashi – chilled salad of tofu, leek and greens

Prawn Head – Crispy fried prawn heads

Plus, hurrah - the Kinoko Hot Udon with mushrooms and salty walnut miso will be back!

They’ll have the city worker very much in mind here, so things are a touch more simple and therefore, we assume, quicker to get out during the lunch rush. There’ll be a well-stocked bar too, to help the overworked souls of the world unwind with sakes, wines, and seasonal cocktails created by the Drinks Factory.